Too many peopleovervalue what they are not and undervalue what they are - Forbes

Performance is the best measure of an athlete’s mental game. Let’sface it as athletes move up in rankings some unexpected circumstances willappear. At that moment, athletes will be faced with a decision on how to act,or react. An athlete’s mindset has a lot to do with the response and theoutcome. Traditional sports psychology primarily teaches goal setting,visualization and self talk as primary tools to overcome obstacles.

Many approaches exist to begin strengthening your mentalgame. Time is of the essence during a competitive season, athletes requirequick results. Learning new skills does not always work well during thecompetitive season. So what if there was a faster approach? Instead of addingsomething onto their training the ideal approach is to remove the obstacle causingpoor performance.

Four primary categories create performance blocks.

1. Affect has to do with feelings and emotions. Emotionsdirectly impact response and perception. This crops up as anxiety, anger,shame, fears and disappointment.

This new experiential approach requires highly specific informationand clarity concerning current challenges. After identifying the problem theathlete goes a little deeper to look at the underlying meaning. Why is thisnecessary? Well actions are the easiest way to recognize a problem, but theyonly scratch the surface. To fully understand performance issues it isnecessary to understand its root cause.

People by nature, including athletes, are storytellers. Learningthe story, and its underlying meaning, is necessary for long lasting change.When an athlete recognizes their story, then they have a choice. Keep it orchange its meaning. When something is working against an athlete, causing aninternal struggle, then it is time to modify the story.

So what’s next? Changing perspective and meaning clearsperformance obstacles. Wherever the athlete is ready to get to work is the bestplace to start.

1. Discovery. Generalizations just don’t work. Learn why theathlete is uncomfortable. Detect whether the problem is external or internal. Athletestaking responsibility for their actions and perspective is the first step inthe process.

2. Choice. Often several different issues occur at the sametime. It is rarely just one problem affecting an athlete’s performance ormotivation. Attempting to solve several issues simultaneously is ineffective.Choose one specific problem to work on at a time. Where to start? The bestplace to start is the one the athlete is most motivated to focus on right now.

3. The Story. What is the athlete experiencing? Identify anyunderlying fears or meaning. Search for the root cause. Ask questions todiscover the first time something like this was experienced. Clearing the rootcause along with its story brings about an immediate transformation. This iswhere breakthroughs happen.

4. Reframe. Changing meaning, perception and response is thedesired outcome. A great place to reframe is around black and white thinkingalso known as all or nothing thoughts. The world is rarely black and white.Building balance into the story begins to change its meaning. Rules are anotherreaction which can be readily modified. Rules sound like this: “If thishappens, then this is the response.” The ideal goal is to step out of the box,developing a new response.

Moving up in rankings necessitates personal growth. Allathletes experience a psychological barrier at some point in their career.Inner conflicts create struggles leading to performance issues. Periodicallyathletes are faced with old beliefs causing them to stumble. Many timesathletes can overcome these hurdles on their own. Persisting challenges,however, affect confidence.

Athletes rarely hesitate to seek out a coach to improvephysical performance. Take the initiative to find the right support to build asolid mental game. Performance coaches are trained to work through mindsetchallenges. Making the decision to take action is a powerful first step.Reaching out for the right support frequently brings relief, recognizing it isthe first step toward a solution.

Activity: Identify a recent competition where you weren’tsatisfied with your performance. What was one which bothered you the most? Listthe reasons your performance was off. Include what prevented you from regainingfocus. Now list all the ways this challenge can be approached. If you are readyto turn things around, what first step are you willing to take now?

"An athlete is a normal person with the gift of an undying passionto be the best and achieve greatness."AmandaRing

Over time most athletes are goingto suffer injury. It is a given. In an ideal world if you knew you were goingto be injured, it would be great to schedule the injury at the beginning of theoff-season. Unfortunately it rarely happens that way.

No matter when you are injured itis going to upset your life, training and season. The strategy is to deal withit in the best possible way. The goal is to return to play as quickly aspossible.

When faced with an injury, athletes respond in one of two ways. The levelof motivation determines how quickly an athlete returns to play. Responses rangefrom viewing the injury as a reason to take a break, nursing the injury for aslong as possible to the athlete who is determined to do what is necessary toquickly return to play.

Yes, some things just take time. There are, however, some things athletescan do to speed up the process. For athletes on the injured list mindset makesa difference. Motivation, attitude and commitment are powerful contributorshelping to speed up the healing process.

Specific characteristics help to speed up the healing process.

Be actively involved in your healing process. Take responsibility foryour recovery. Instead of waiting for someone telling you what to do next askquestions, do research and find out what you can do to help the process along.

Positive expectation of a full healing and successfully returning toplay. Believing something is possible lays the groundwork for success.

When your heart is set on healing in time for the event of a lifetime,there is no room for doubt. It was the belief of what was possible which pushedyou to excel in your sport. That attitude, and skill set, can be applied tohealing. The process is similar. It is something you already know how to do.

Although healing seems passive, it is a very active process. Constantactivity is occurring under the surface. Sitting on the sidelines is difficult.Instead of feeling sorry for yourself use this time to your advantage. Thereare ways to improve as an athlete which are overlooked when training.

Become a student of technique. Watch training videos of yourself andother excellent athletes.

Learn new performance techniques to reduce the risk of injury in thefuture.

Rediscover your passion for your sport.

Learn mindset strategies to keep you in the zone.

Visualize training and competing. Strong, vivid visualization actuallyfires slow and fast twitch muscles. It is a way to remain conditioned wheninjured.

Learn what you can to reduce the fear of re-injuring yourself.

Injury is always apossibility, but many athletes lose confidence with prolonged recovery times.The fear is an emotional response to a specific event. With the right tools itcan be easily overcome.

When using mental game strategies to create a positive mindset, athletesfocus on their full potential. A champion mindset makes a point of focusing onthe positive instead of the negative. Reframes are useful tools for shiftingperspective around from negative to positive. In fact with reframes the endresult is usually the same. Changing to a positive focus shifts an athlete’s attitudefrom passive to active.

Activity: Athletes are used to setting performance goals, along with milemarkers, to maintain high performance. Use the same strategy for recovery. Setlong term goals with benchmarks along the way to stay focused on healing andquickly returning to play.

In fact challenge yourself. See if you can decide on an earlier return toplay date than expected. Stretch yourself a little and see if you are up to thechallenge to mentally focus on what is possible to heal as quickly as possible.Making a decision, then acting with intention to do whatever is necessary,influences outcome driven goals.

Have you been training for an important event and ended up with aninjury, throwing everything off course? It is easy to become discouraged.Winning athletes look for opportunities to move beyond the current obstacle.Apply this principle to take charge of the healing process.

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